Chapter 60
“You want all of this?”
Brian of the Swordmilia Merchant Guild.
The guy who sold me swords and shields cheaply.
He was also the one who had reinforced my Tier 2 gear with strengthening glaze.
And I had five Tier 2 swords and all kinds of shields laid out on the counter.
“You... weren't a magic school student?”
“I have uses for them.”
“Altogether, that's 97 silver. But do you actually have the money? If you try asking for credit again like last time, I'll throw you out.”
Brian looked at me suspiciously.
Hah.
He's really underestimating my wealth.
“I'll pay in full.”
I paid 1 gold on the spot.
“Keep the change.”
Brian's eyes went wide.
“Wh-what is this...”
“Don't underestimate me again. Oh, and no need to wrap them.”
I stacked the swords and shields into a huge bundle and carried them out.
“I never underestimated you, though...”
Leaving Brian scratching his head behind me, I walked out of the shop.
Someone whispered from behind.
“A human who can casually pay 1 gold on the spot... who is he?”
“Idiot, he's a senior from our school. Since I don't know him, he doesn't seem like some high noble... probably a commoner-born honor student with some source of income.”
“Though his clothes are weird.”
“The School Market allows students to go out in casual clothes.”
I was getting admiring looks.
“Wow, so cool...! I want to be a knight like that too!”
“As if you could.”
“Hmph. I'll make a lot of money on missions too. Just wait until I'm a second-year.”
“...I'm a first-year too.”
If you want to make a lot of money, don't do it the honest way—pull off one big score like I do.
Of course, living like that isn't a bad thing.
It seemed like I'd gotten caught up in some strange misunderstanding, but it was trivial.
I went straight into the wand shop.
Ultimately, Karanov's mana density would be higher than mine.
At the very least, five shots.
I needed at least five attacks that used dragon mana.
I went into the wand shop and picked out a wand of decent quality.
[Blue Warrior's Wand (SR)]
“Can I test it?”
After being guided to the test room, I tried out a basic attack spell.
A faint thin line was drawn.
The center of the target was dented as if it had been poked with a ballpoint pen.
Hmm.
The output isn't bad.
“I'll take three of these.”
5 gold each, so 15 gold total.
It really is a huge sum to burn on a single fight...
Once I've made up my mind, I'm going to do it properly.
“Huh? You're not going to do the mana wavelength test?”
“Yep.”
After all, it wasn't that high-quality a wand anyway.
It'd probably break if I used dragon mana even once.
“Looks like I'm broke again.”
* * *
How did I end up with this much money?
Of course, a big part of it came from selling spices...
But there was another reason I could spend money like this.
That was thanks to the potionology professor, Isabel.
“Back again? This time, how much... oh?”
“I'll be delivering 50 beginner potions.”
[Beginner Potion (SR-, top quality)]
The test tubes were lined up in a row.
The test tubes were all glowing blue at once.
Isabel had been steadily buying my potions.
‘And she even wrote up all the official paperwork for it.’
Honestly, I wasn't that nervous about the potionology exam.
To keep the air conditioner running, you needed electricity, and to generate electricity, you had to run a generator.
The mana-stone generator wasn't terrible, but it kept spewing out a heavy, grinding noise.
Because of that, we had to use barrier magic, which was out of our league, and Aris was fine, but my mana pool was screaming.
Maintaining the barrier spell by myself while also adding attributes was hard even for Aris and me.
I had to become a potion-guzzling hippo, a potion-making machine.
‘I really did grow insanely fast.’
Thanks to that, now I can even make potions by stirring with my feet.
Of course, that doesn't guarantee quality at all.
“I've only seen one person produce top-quality potions this quickly!”
“I'm curious who that one person is.”
“Hmm? Me?”
“...So there really were that few talented people?”
“Anyway, we were short on top-quality ones, so this is a huge help. Could you make intermediate and upper-intermediate potions too?”
I haven't even made intermediate potions before.
They were obviously much harder than beginner potions.
In potionology class, they only taught us the technique for making beginner potions.
They said intermediate and upper-intermediate would be next semester.
“Do you need them that badly?”
“My research needs a huge amount of top-quality potions. Normally our researchers make them, but top-quality ones rarely come out.”
Hmm.
So the success rate is different.
“About how much?”
“When we have the researchers make them, one out of ten bottles is top-quality. The amount you make isn't large, but it's been quite helpful.”
...The difference is bigger than I expected.
Isabel continued.
“The material costs are more than covered, so that's not really the issue. It's the time it takes.”
Indeed, potion-making requires quite a bit of concentration and time.
I could easily make a mistake.
Of course, it's the kind of mistake I can clean up.
Well, if I'm making my own stuff anyway, it'd be nice to sell a bit extra too.
“I'll try it after the final exams are over.”
“Really!?”
Isabel's eyes sparkled.
“While you're at it, during vacation, at our lab...”
“Goodbye.”
“Aah! I'm kidding!”
That's a pretty savage joke.
For now, the delivery was done.
Isabel will send over a promissory note to the bank in the School Market, where it can be exchanged for gold and silver coins.
Now, it was time for the next thing.
I used Observation Eyes on Isabel.
[The difference in rank between you and the target is far too great! Observation Eyes cannot be used!]
So it doesn't work.
I needed to figure out the threshold where Observation Eyes stopped working.
* * *
“Come in... what is it?”
“The thing you asked me for last time.”
I handed over ten notebooks.
Sure, the paper in this world isn't bad, but it can't compare to the quality of modern stiff white paper.
Karanov seemed to notice that too, and after examining the notebooks closely, he said,
“Hmm. You've brought some fairly high-quality paper.”
“Of course.”
“I'll give you the reward after the final exams are over. I wasn't prepared since I didn't expect you to get it this quickly.”
“Yep.”
I wasn't expecting a reward anyway.
Besides, my remaining conscience wouldn't let me take one.
And as a bonus, I handed over a book.
It was a book translated only up to the point where there wasn't enough margin left to write any more.
“What is this?”
“It's a gift. The return favor isn't necessary.”
“Hmm. Let me see it.”
Heh, now he's going to have quite a hard time.
It's one thing to translate it, but even after translating it, what awaits is the endless hell of proofs.
Honestly, I didn't know how Karanov would react either.
“Oh-ho, quite an interesting idea. An ancient mathematics book, is it? What an amusing gift. I'll put this on your tab too.”
...That wasn't the reaction I was hoping for.
‘Though I suppose it doesn't matter.’
[Observation Eyes cannot be used!!]
Actually, the notebook was just an excuse. This was the real point.
Figuring out Karanov's capability.
I peered into Karanov's eyes, into the source of his mana.
It was still horrifyingly abundant and dense.
Enough that I thought he might not even lose to Adrian.
‘How the hell do you beat something like that?’
Come to think of it, that must be why they set a five-second time limit—you couldn't beat it otherwise.
Thinking about it that way, it was actually a fairly reasonable test.
“Why is that?”
Karanov smiled darkly.
As if he could see straight through my mind.
Hah.
You're hitting my pride again.
“Because the final exam seems like it's going to be brutally hard.”
“It won't be that easy.”
“Well, you won't know until you try!”
I said that and hopped off the sofa.
* * *
“You want me to stand still?”
At my request, Aris stopped walking, stood there blankly, and looked at me.
“Yeah. I've got something I need to check.”
I used Observation Eyes on her as well.
One thing I learned from using Observation Eyes is that the more directly you stare at the target, the more detailed the information it gives.
Even then, it only ended up adding one or two lines.
[Observation Eyes' performance is insufficient! Information is limited!]
Name: Aris Script
The duke's daughter of House Script.
Based on her very high mana and unique magic aptitude, she casts magic from the tip of her wand.
Status
[Durability(C)] [Stamina(D)] [Strength(C+)] [Agility(C+)] [Mana(?)] [Technique(B)]
Hmm....
I remembered that Sera's mana had been upper A-rank.
And from what I could see, Aris's mana was even greater than that.
So stats at S-rank or above are displayed as ?
I looked into the mirror.
Long white hair.
Round eyes and a face cute enough that anyone would call it cute.
Even this can be seen by Observation Eyes...
Observation Eyes activated.
[Observation Eyes' performance is insufficient! Information is limited!]
Name: Yumia
Status
[Durability(C++)] [Stamina(D)] [Strength(B)] [Agility(A)] [Mana(B+)] [Technique(??)]
This confirmed it.
Stats above S-rank cannot be observed with Observation Eyes.
But having one or two stats that are close to S-rank doesn't stop Observation Eyes.
Then it would be reasonable to assume Karanov is at least an S-rank powerhouse.
‘As expected, there's no easy way.’
Then there was another way.
* * *
And so, I trained aura until nightfall.
[Aura Manifestation(R) is preparing to grow.]
In the western forest.
Since I'd trained aura diligently, its performance had risen to a fairly usable level.
Enough to last about 20 seconds.
“This should do.”
And then night fell.
Adrian greeted me with a smile.
“You finally came, sis! ...But what are all these?”
Adrian looked at the medicinal herbs around me.
“Adrian.”
“Hm?”
“I'm going to get stronger.”
Over the next few days, I'm going to raise my mana total to A-rank or higher.
The elixir ingredients I'd “stolen”... no, the ones my seniors had properly supplied me.
And the remaining stat-enhancement selection tickets.
I'm using all of them.
“Nya-ha... I don't know what got into you, but that's a good attitude.”
Adrian and I grinned like villains.
It's mana time.